caret icon Back to all discussions

Migraine relieved by Indomethacin?

So headache specialist gave me indomethacin 100mg suppositories to try on the last appointment (plus a couple other things) and today was the first day I tried them. Woke up with a pounding throbbing head (left side only), used a imitrex nasal spray and had no relief (very very untypical) so I gave up sleeping and started moving around (sometimes it’s neck/back spasms that improve once I’m walking around and allows the triptans to work, nothing. No change after 5 minutes and pain increased and since I don’t need to drive today I thought i would giv ethe new ones a try before heading into the ER (10/10 pain). And within 10 minutes the pain was GONE 100%, end of migraine, no hangover symptoms which is also very usual for my chronic migraines. Which of course I looked up hemicrania continua which I had read about over the year and knew it responded to indomethacin. But ..... I don’t fit the diagnosis. My migraines switch sides constantly, my daily headache is normally two sides and almost never get runny nose/eye, dropping etc. So .... can indomethacin work that well for regular migraine attacks since it’s an anti-inflammatory? I can’t find yes or no anywhere, all the articles talk about is people with so called chronic migraine (especially iratractabke like me) being actually hemicrania continua. It’s still 2 months away from my headache specialist appointment which I will ask then but hoping to find an answer before that.

  1. Hi Tamara,

    Thank you for reaching out to us with your question. I'm so happy to hear you had relief from taking that medication.

    First let me say it's possible to have more than one type of migraine and/or headache disorder. Medications that work for one attack may not work for another, so it's good to hear the doctor added indomethacin to your treatment regime.

    Hemicrania continua (HC) is typically one sided pain, but can switch sides! We have articles on HC you may be interested in reading here; https://migraine.com/?s=hemicrania+continua&submit=Go.

    Here is information from the American Headache Society on HC: https://americanheadachesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Hemicrania_Continue_June_2015.pdf.

    I hope that helps!
    Nancy

    Please read our rules before posting.